workplace

Time to Talk Day You may think speaking openly about mental health in the workplace is not the “done thing”. More like a topic that is discussed in hushed tones behind closed doors. Well, think again, today 7 Feb is Time to Talk Day led by Time to Change. It is about empowering everyone to have conversations about mental health. It is organisations’ and individuals’ opportunity to reduce stigma by talking about mental health and mental-ill health in an open way. We…

Mental Health Training This week I delivered the two day adult Mental Health First Aid Training for a large financial organisation, with a large customer base. The delegates were great, open and willing to share their lived experiences of supporting people with mental-ill health. However, there was one delegate who fixated on the issue of team members faking mental-ill health. They asked the question at least eight times during the session. They were very concerned as a manager what do you do,…

June is post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) Awareness Month. In the UK it is believed that 1 in 3 people will have experienced a traumatic event in their life. Trauma can be caused by any kind of abuse, physical, emotional, sexual, witnessing abuse, witnessing any kind of crime, arelationship breakdown, workplace bullying, war etc. On the anniversary of the Grenfell fire this brings PTSD into sharp focus. Residents still recovering from what they witnessed, in many cases having no permanent…

What is blue Monday? As it is, Mondays can be tough for all of us. It is the day of the week staff are most likely to call in sick. As we know, the third Monday in January has been dubbed blue Monday, the most depressing day of the year. The day when it really dawns on people that the celebrations are truly over, winter has us in its grip, debts from Christmas may be mounting up and the pressure…

As Dyslexia Awareness Week is just around the corner, I have put together these top ten tips from by experience of supporting staff and organisations with dyslexia. Dyslexia is often spoken about in the educational context and is often diagnosed at school or university. Support for dyslexic pupils and students is more commonplace now, however, the majority of staff I supported when working at Imperial College London were in their forties or fifties. Not being supported and knowing what could…